This collection, Black Wings of Cthulhu
was edited by noted H.P. Lovecraft expert S.T. Joshi, and features the works of 21 authors who range from the famous and popular to the practically unknown. Like any good collection of short fiction, the stories are varied and there is something here for just about anyone. For lack of anything better to do, here is a list of titles that I have some feelings about.
We’re off to a solid start with a sequel of sorts to Lovecraft’s own PICKMAN’S MODEL. This first selection paints an uncanny portrait of PICKMAN’S OTHER MODEL, a decidedly unsavory woman with how-do-you-call-it? Fishy ancestry. As told by a malcontent lowlife who spends some time tracking her from a distance. By Caitlin R. Kiernan
Speaking of lowlifes: Besides fatally curious academics and deranged artists, who else seeks forbidden supernatural knowledge? If the quest of the Twenty First Century Cthulhu cultist amounted to a drug deal crossed with an urban legend, then it might be called COPPING SQUID. Interesting idea, but comes off a little comical. By Michael Shea
My favorite story from this collection details the descent and corruption of a man haunted by supernatural beings who he first encountered in his youth. While he has spent the intervening years trying to forget, they have merely been biding their time. The beginning and end occur underneath our protagonist’s current domicile, a residential hotel named THE BROADSWORD. By Laird Barron
A loving husband finds himself USURPED, and attracted like a moth to a flame, when a terrifying and unexpected brush with the supernatural sends him on a journey to find its source. By William Browning Spencer
The world has come undone, and a person in the know details how it was caused by DENKER’S BOOK, the product of a man who would pay any price and go to any lengths to translate a tome of forbidden knowledge. By David J. Schow
Creepy, thrilling, and at times maddeningly boring, but ultimately humorous and satisfying: TEMPTING PROVIDENCE. An artist visits his alma mater to find himself in a battle of wits with unwelcome trans-dimensional predators and a psychopathic gallery director. By Jonathan Thomas
A scientist interested in crytozoological genetics visits a remote English island hoping to uncover THE TRUTH ABOUT PICKMAN, and leaves with far more truth than he probably wanted. By Brian Stableford.
I personally would not have expected a Lovecraftian anthology to contain a post-apocalyptic gore-fest as perpetrated by LESSER DEMONS, but I still thought this was a hum-dinger. By Norman Partridge
Completely unknown to the world at large, events that might eventually unknit the world are happening deep inside SUSIE as she molders away in an Edwardian insane asylum. By Jason Van Hollander
Here we have interesting stories based on various parts of the Lovecraft mythos, three different stories with takes on Lovecraft’s PICKMAN’S MODEL, and a few stories that don’t really have much to do with Lovecraft, but which are still entertaining in their own right. I think it’s safe to say that nobody REALLY writes like Lovecraft, especially the authors who claim that they do. Is that a bad thing? It’s hard to say. Mostly I’m glad to read a collection like this, where some great authors have taken the time and effort to craft stories that Lovecraft fans will find entertaining and interesting. Sure there were some disappointing stories here, but for the most part this collection is worthwhile. I would recommend it to fans of the genre.
Black Wings of Cthulhu – Edited by S.T. Joshi – Titan Books – 2012
Many thanks to Titan Books for sending me a review copy of this book.
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